The Feilding Star. Oroua aad Kiwitea Counties Gazette THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1907. A Fine Point.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 290, 13 June 1907, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua aad Kiwitea Counties Gazette THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1907. A Fine Point.

A most peculiar case came before the Arbitration Court yesterday, which shows how the operations of an award restrict the freedom of contract between employer and employed. A carter was summoned for not paying one of his men overtime rates for nightwork. Ihe Inspector of Awards stated that he did not contend that the employee received less under the arrangement than he would have obtained under the award, but he contended that an arrangement by which a man's pay depended on his earnings was a contravention of the award. Evidence was given that between the hours of 8 and 5 the man was paid the award rate, but at night, if he thought it advisable to go to the trains, he was paid half his earnings. His employer and the man deposed that the work at night Mas purely voluntary, and he could please himself whether he did it. In a year his earnings at night were pioved to be ov^r £20. In dismissing the case, the President of the Court said that there was no doubt such an arrangement as existed wati in contrivention of the award provided the amount earned by the man was less than the award rate. But as the onus of proving that the amount received by the man was not equal to the overtime he should have been paid rested on the Inspector of Awards, and as the latter said he would not contend that less had been paid, he could not convict the defendant.